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This needs a more focused topic... that one is full of vicious people defending their $100,000 degrees to their dying breath. Feel free to add your own points, and if you go to college and hate it, write about it.

I'll get it out the way I do think it's a conspiracy but one sprung out of mass consumerism, whereby 'dumbing down' isn't a sinister government plot (though it's possible), but a necessity of its big business fundamentals.

First of all, college prices are outrageous... pro-college have to admit they're completely biased because they've made the investment and subconsciously accepted it. Admit that it's deeply ingrained within you, and has been since you were little. (Sound familiar? Religion. Cult. Nationalism.)

Not only did you invest the money, you've invested four years in it, you've made friends and connections and "learned" (what does that mean? to think critically? to memorize facts? You don't need to spend $100,000 on that. Is it a financial investment? That's up for debate now as well, it's the next big financial bubble)

In the years 18-21 when people graduate, whether you join the military, go to university or read books, these are shaping years, most people will look back on those years with nostalgia whether they go to college or not. So maybe what you think you've gotten out of it isn't a direct result of college itself but of the maturing of the brain and the socialization you received.

College is a big business. From top down, it's big business, meaning lowest common denominator, anyone can get a degree as long as they have money, any idiot can get a PHD, top down it's meant to milk as much money out of you as it can. "You get what you put into it," understand that can be applied to EVERYTHING. College doesn't make you smarter whatsoever, but in those four years the emotional maturing of the brain makes you smarter, more logical and in control. Don't mistake the two. Correlation =/= causation

Want to know one of the biggest purposes of college? Babysitting. At 18, everyone wants kids out of the house. They are not emotionally mature enough to be in the real world at that age, in a half-way zone. Note how more and more colleges are requiring professors to grade on attendance. Parents are pissed off that they have to pay so much for their kids and there's no attendance requirement.

Padding and filler. General requirements, you're paying tens of thousands for college that you'll take years to pay off and they force you to take history 101? How is it their business that you have a 'well-rounded' course load. College is the new High School apparently.

The real world and the work-force will barely resemble the academic environment of memorizing facts, studying and taking tests. It's a self-contained system. Alternately, you might find a job within academia, which is a copout but more in line with what college actually does...it doesn't teach you anything except how to succeed in college.

Getting a valuable degree - the work force is always a fluctuating bubble, there is no set model for which degree is going to be lucrative. It amuses me that the engineer degrees mock the liberal arts degrees when neither are guaranteed. It's a lottery.

Colleges should be WAY smaller, they should be cheaper and specialized, education should not be seen as what 'job' you're going into, but what you can CONTRIBUTE. You will learn way more running your own business than getting a business degree. You will learn way more shadowing a nurse for five years than getting a nursing degree. I think instead of being the thing to do for the average idiot, it should be something maybe only 10-15 % of people do, the ones who need more refinement. While the rest can start to directly get involved with their career choices in some manner. I never understand why education tries to teach you life from books, you learn life and jobs by living and working.

One of the major themes of college=the best time of your life. This is meant to plant the idea of college in your mind so you spread it in the minds of your kids to continue the process. The college degree only has relevance because your bosses went to college and they want their kids to go to college. Intellectually it is of no relevance.

The best thing it teaches you is to jump through hoops of bureaucracy, accept the authority of your professor, and spend time on what he authorizes you to spend time on. The content is arbitrary. There is a famous quote, "Make people think they're thinking and they'll be happy, make them actually think and they'll be mad." In college, kids THINK they're learning, but what they are learning is actually vastly different: how to walk a straight line.

The inside world of academia is extremely ugly. It's petty world of in-fighting, jealousy, mediocrity, suppression of research and status quo. It's not the beacon of enlightenment academics like to pretend.

College is like fast food, you think you're eating but you're not. Or it's like the military... there is some truth to the 'defense' aspect of the military, but mostly it's a monster war machine that brainwashes its soldiers.

Anyone else who despises the higher education system want to chime in.... or anyone going through it want to vent, go ahead. By the way, yes I dropped out, but I run a business and make over 150K a year. I wrote this fast so couldn't go more in depth or fix grammar.

As a brit going to university, two years in, I'll tell you what I think. I'm a welsh national so I have reduced fees (I'm looking at £10,000 for three years. Sucks but y'know, not as bad as some people).

The thing is, I'm paying this money for three reasons: 1) its not about what you know, but who you know, and university is providing me with contacts I couldn't get in my home area, 2) I'm in a very "hands on" uni, so I do practical work almost every day, and I learn by doing. I figure this is much much better than attending mind numbing lectures every day. Also, the equipment they provide for me is specialist, no chance I would've learnt to use it anywhere else. Finally, 3) the experience. I'm meeting like minded people, new friends and I'm living in a new place. I come from a super rural area, and this is so different. I know I could experience new places and people without uni but its helped.

Anyway, I get that in the us and many places college/uni is a scam, to the extreme. Hell, even in the uk its basically ingrained in our psyche that uni degree = valued member of society. It can be a rip-off but in all honesty I weighed my options and university was the way for me. It may be an unpopular opinion here but higher education was the right choice for me and I don't regret it.

Well, I went/am going to school for classical music. I couldn't have gotten where I am on my own, and I needed the teachers. I absolutely learned a shitton, every music course and lesson endowed me with things I could NOT learn on my own, or could ever come from anywhere else: so I disagree with your statement about 'learning.' I still concur with everything else you said though. It could be the nature of music as being more of a trade, but thought I'd just throw that out there. Perhaps there are other fields that feel this way.

I love the core classes I take, and really feel more involved, and motivated in them then the rest of my classes. Honestly I just bs my way through my gen ed courses. If I want to study engineering, why should I have to take 20hrs of humanities?

Here's how I look at it. I was going to university, and I wanted to major in Medieval History. The school I was going to didn't specify quite that much, so it was just a History degree. In 4 years, I would take a total of 1 classes that hit on that area. While in the UK, I could attend schools that offer degrees that revolve around the medieval history field, where nearly every class relates to your field somehow. So much, in fact, that its actually possible (albeit difficult) to go from an undergraduate program to a doctorate program because of the depth in your chosen field you reach.

A lot of gen ed classes are not difficult to pass, with numerous opportunities to make up grades so you DO pass and are able to get in to your core classes. It's basically, give you a feel for things you may want to delve deeper in to. But if you already know what you want, then its just time and money eating bullshit.

Also, with american education going down (meaning high school), university education has to go down as well in what they are actually teaching, else they have exponential numbers of drop outs and less cash flow.

I spent $7000 on two years of college, for Carpentry. Got a diploma and 1500 hours credited to my apprenticeship. I think it was totally worth it, I learned a metric fuckton(imperial ass load) and got a lot of great life experienced.

If college was meant to inform us, in our mandatory history classes, we would be taught both sides of a conflict, rather than just one. It is scary to think of how many American's think that America's fight is just, that we are the "good" guys.

I had a professor who specialized in Nazi History. One day she told me about project Paperclip unintentionally. She said the reason that all the Germans weren't killed was because the country would have collapsed and/or the Russians/Chinese would have gotten their scientists if we didn't. I hated this woman up until that point... at the end of the semester.

I totally agree. I wish I could sue my history professors from college. It has taken nearly 30 years to figure out almost everything they taught me was a lie. Now I realize how tightly controlled the information is that is taught.

I now how have friends who teach at the college level. There is extreme pressure to be politically correct and certain things are forbidden to teach or even research.

I agree with you on most parts, I think at this point it is basically just babysitting for the young adult crowd. It is a flawed system at this point and if you let it play you, you'll be worse off than you were when you got in.

However I was reading through this and I have a bone to pick. Specifically on the

"You will learn way more shadowing a nurse for five years than getting a nursing degree."

This is untrue and there have been several studies on this, because you know how much the medical industry loves squeezing the money out of every possible source they can. They found that in that case the more educated the nurse is, the better the patient outcomes. Training is knowing how to do something, while education is knowing how to do it, why you do it, among a various other line of rationale. That's why hospitals are phasing out to BSN.

If I had a choice between a nurse that's been shadowing another for 5 years or a nurse that graduated with a BSN and spent a year on the unit, I'd pick the latter.

Anyway this is my field and I wanted to throw my two pennies in. Otherwise I completely agree. I see the other majors as not knowing why they're in school, they just went because everyone told them they will fail at life in they don't.

You ain't kidding. I've wasting a bit of time arguing that there is no lack of skills or education in the US and that not everyone can be a scientist or work at Facebook, that is only a few can have these "jobs of the future". cutting higher education spending would probably be a good thing.

I feel for the most part, your points are close to target to the average student. Personally I had an overall excellent experience in college. I lucked out in a lot of ways, & the things I was lead to "believe" that would come from college were for sure a joke though, but what came out was far more profound then I could have possibly imagined. Looking back at the time when things happened that frustrated the whole thing (like not getting accepted to the university first at bat) it put me on my way to a cheaper & less stressful path. Community college got all of my gen. ed. out of the way at an average of like $100-$200 a credit I got two years out of the way for really cheap.

I transferred to the university as a junior & went straight into the classes for my degree. I found an interest with Psychology (not surprised right? lol) that stemmed from a deeper interest with the mysteries of the universe I've had for a long time, & there is no greater mystery then the human brain. Again I lucked out, some of the classes right off the bat had me thinking with a skeptics mind about everything. I recall quite well one of my first classes on campus, Psychology of Consciousness & my professor going on for about 1/2 hour about the structure of the school & the education system as a whole was flawed, that research has shown that the environment is horrible, how critical thinking is being phased out. It was really profound.

After learning about this aspect I started noticing the fakeness around me. I payed for most of my schooling & so I felt it a duty to attend class(not that if it was paid for I wouldn't, it just meant more to me), I'm quite sure I only missed like 2-3 classes through college. & in classes of 100-150 students on average I'd see around 40! Unless it was the first day, Test day, & sometimes review day. Being into the human mind I'd eavesdrop on peoples conversations & the theme was almost universal, "it's so hard, can't wait for the weekend, oh I'm almost done!! (how many times I've heard this ugg...), or did you hear about Jenny crap crap crap..." Personally I hating hearing "yay! it's Friday!" because that was my Monday for work.

My classes varied in many ways & some of them changed me profusely, they have made me open awareness to a far greater degree when I'm looking into something & I know for sure it had a role in my path to awakening. These hypothesis for forms of thinking have given me new perspectives to view the world, & when adopted into the geopolitical realm the idea of not having conspiracy in the playing field just seems childish. This idea alas is mortified, ostracized, & mocked, as "unfathomable!", "preposterous!" even "TREASONOUS!!", why is it so hard to believe? It's easy, the people we are accusing filter their perspective, they only want us thinking in a Formalistic fashion, never connecting any dots.

At the end of the day college didn't get me a job in the field, I lucked out & it set me on a more spiritual awakening path & a part of the resistance to tyranny & all other evil, what have you. I would like to continue with my field of study one day, but not for the PhD behind my name, but to try & discover something new in the human psyche. Although I'm a small percentage I'd assume, for the most part my fellow students were a separate population to myself.

If you've read this far, Just for fun here's a little story about a study I worked on. Ok so I was working on a study doing with stress & memory, I'd put these students under stress then have them watch a slideshow, tracking their eyes we'd be able to know what they looked at on the slideshow & for how long, they would be tested for memory recall days later. Well the stress I'd put them under was a mock public speaking (microphone, two spot lights, in front of a double sided mirror (that they believe has people behind it) two camcorders, & one feeding their picture back into a tv in front of them), where they had to act like they were in an interview for a job, whatever job they wanted. I shit you not most of these kids were "applying" for pizza delivery, manager at taco bell, & other miscellaneous non-degree needing positions. (given there were some who did know what they wanted to do & did much better). Overall I just got this sense of utter & complete loss, like they really have no idea they are a living breathing human. It was weird, depressing, & comical at the same time. Sorry that was so long, hope it made sense!

"College is a big business. From top down, it's big business, meaning lowest common denominator, anyone can get a degree as long as they have money, any idiot can get a PHD, top down it's meant to milk as much money out of you as it can."

It saddens me when a lot of the same people who KNOW what the saturation of money in any market does to the market - examples being how money directs research and development in the medical field (we all saw that thread someone posted about how a guy in Canada efficiently and successfully treated and nearly cured tons of forms of cancer with no side effects, but because the drug used is "public domain", noone will fund the next round of research because very very little money will be made off of it), how big business has a lid on the entire energy field, how corporate business models now direct the entire video game creating process, thus creating a saturated market of the same bullshit (see Call of Duties...) - the list can go on. Yet the same people who know all of that exists for some reason won't accept that the same can and has happened to education in this country.

For example, credit reporting agencies are useful in some ways. If you're a loan officer selling a mortgage on a big ticket item, it can be a very useful tool to evaluate how much risk you are taking.

However, if you're an employer, and you're checking people's credit reports you must set a standard by which to flag someone as unemployable. An arbitrary numerical threshold beyond which you deem someone not worthy of a chance. How many diamonds in the rough are out there untapped because they had a medical expense before they were financially capable of dealing with it?

Oh and now we have people who game the credit system to artificially inflate their score. Better yet there are fictitious persons on file who don't really exist, yet have perfect credit scores. No doubt those fake persons will suddenly be activated and their charge cards used to purchased high dollar goods destined for India and Nigeria.

Ever heard the phrase "bad credit is better than no credit"? Its shit like this. Forced participation or national marginalization.

You will walk down the path that has been built by your human lords for you, or the world will turn it's back on you. This is the grand design. College, credit, credentials and credibility.

Anyone outside of the path can and will be quickly drowned out by those on the inside. And if an outsider should somehow gain influence by some unpredictable mechanism, the media is on standby to drag their name through the coals until they emerge filthy and scarred to such extremes that no one will be able to look upon them without disgust.

I finished all my college credits, and need to intern to graduate. So I'm no dropout.

College is definitely a scam. I went to college on loans, and it ended up costing $100,000. It was an ITish degree. Absolutely everything I learned could have been learned right here where I'm sitting - at my computer. If I need help, or have a question, there are countless invaluable resources and forums on the internet.

If the whole system worked much in the way master - apprentice system once did, I have a feeling people would be much more enthusiastic about education, and would probably learn more, and faster. Only certain things, like heavy math in physics, require a fucking classroom.

It's a scam and cash grab. In my last quarter, I sat in on an all staff meeting. It was so eye opening. A little disturbing even. They pretty much treated students like they were cattle, and talked about how to best to sell their "brand". I didn't know education was now a god damn brand. They wouldn't consider any online methods of education (in the way MIT has put free courses online) without some possibility of profit.

Also : stop stalking my reddit account you fucking cunt. You know who you are. Stop being a coward and talk to me.

I think it's important to note that in most cases, public universities are much cheaper than private universities (and probably offer more scholarship than most). (this is USA stuff). Teach pretty much the same thing if you apply yourself, and live in a state with good funding.

It's funny that just gaining access to a "sphere of influence"/"connections" has such a hefty price tag, but then again, since when did it not.*

edit: referring to private universities like Ivy's, which have that whole "Old Boys Club" notoriety.

Redditor for 13 hours, this post 12 hours old. Hmmm.
By the way, public colleges and universities are far less expensive than private ones, for-profit or non-profit. That's because they were given tracts of land to lease out to help fund themselves.

If your school is any of the following, you are probably screwed: University of Phoenix, Devry, Everest, ITT Technical Institute. Expensive schools, credits don't transfer to other schools, and you are less likely to graduate. My job involves sending out tuition and fees payments to for training and education, and when the student completes their program, we often receive a notice from the school that they graduated. I rarely ever see that notice from those schools.

i question if you wrote this to justify your decision to drop out of college. I do agree with some of the points you've made... but personally traveling and finishing my degree were the two greatest decisions I've made in my life.

You are spot on with most of the first post. I just graduated in May in Information Systems through a business school branch of a university in my city.

I must say that from what I saw going to school, a lot of majors either don't need taught at all, like marketing or general business which is common sense, or should be 2 or 3 year degrees with the bullshit cut out. I took at least 5 classes that were pretty much the same thing throughout college, all through the business school. There are all the electives that aren't in the business school as well.

Imaginary literature!? I was in disbelief I had to take that. Part of the problem is our overall broken education system, which the colleges have no clue how smart or dumb everyone is.

On another note I had a lot of friends in pharmacy, which is a 6 year major and they had to learn tons of science. Same with nurses. I honestly feel they need most of those classes, other than the general mandatory 'electives' because they need knowledge of compounds of different meds and such.

So I agree with your post for some majors, but I do think college is needed to extend some knowledge. Every single degree can be shortened by a year, at least, no doubt.
You do learn more on the job than in college which is why I'm an advocate of spreading the nursing system of having one or two years essentially working/shadowing at a company, hospital for them, mandatory because that is much better than having business professors babble in classes they don't know how to teach only because they were successful in that business.

I agree. I could have done my job without going to school and I am a CPA. I did small BS work for my dad, also a CPAm when I was young though so maybe that gave me an advantage. Maybe this is a radical thought but instead of fighting this and getting angry, small business owners like yourself, should bring back apprenticeships.

So scientific research into biology, medicine, psychology, mathematics, etc, which all take place around universities, and are directly responsible for your lifestyle should be completely discounted and abandoned because little Billy here thinks it is thought crime to make him learn APA.

There are issues with college for profit. There are issues with liberal and conservative biases. These and other issues are not reason to completely abandon university or personal education. These issues infect all parts of society, and are not caused by education, they simple are parasitic.

If you go to school expecting more high school (easy black and white answers to everything) then you will be disappointed.

censored ideas

A prof in my sociology department taught evolutionary psych, instructing that women belong in a nurturing role in the home.
These anti-college posts have a point, but are far too hyperbolic. Of course, I will be told I am merely "butthurt" and "brainwashed".

Bullshit. In research areas, original thinking is the only thing that matters. You don't write a dissertation based on regurgitating other peoples thoughts, you write one based on orignal research and experiments. Duplicating the works of others is a waste of time and recognized as such.

Keep in mind, when I talk about original thinking, I'm talking about rational, defendable ideas. There's a reason a lot of "free thinkers" think that institutionalized academia is out to get them and suppress them, it's because their ideas are crap, undefendable, or already disproven.

Literature and critical theory are based on fads and trends. Psychology a bit as well, with the exception that Psychology can produce (and even sometimes reproduce...) experiments and make predictions. There's nothing wrong with failure in academia, if there was no failures, it meant people aren't pushing things far enough.

In the main I agree with you, but I've noticed that even in the supposedly "hard" sciences there are taboos that must not be crossed. I happen to believe man-made global warming is complete balderdash, yet it is accepted as legitimate by many climate scientists, maybe even by the majority. This illustrates to me how easy it is for these academics to be buffaloed by fashion in science. There are other examples I could name. Cold fusion, for one. It didn't get the research it deserves.

You are rewarded as a graduate for writing something that has the gloss of originality, but which does not transgress the taboos currently embraced by the academics who have the power to destroy your career. Anything really original, that challenges the status quo, is rejected brutally. The graybeards don't want a young nothing making them look foolish, they want to continue on in the comforting daze to which they have become accustomed while occupying their comfy chairs at the universities.

higher education is a great thing- exchanging ideas and learning how to research independently are important goals.

the way it is set up in the US, where rich stupid kids drink for 4 years and the banks skim off the top, is totally fucked up.

i finished grad school in a STEM subject i like, but i tell others not to waste money on college unless they really enjoy it. the debt that results from attending school really sucks the joy out of intellectual pursuits.

All true, but unfortunately you pretty much need to get the piece of paper. If you don't, then many, even most low level jobs are closed out to you. College degrees are now a requirement for low level jobs - it's yet another way to screen out the poor "lower classes"

My favorite part of medicine is the independent studies paid for by the companies pushing the drugs. Like dentists going on and on about how flouride is God's gift to man and saying that it's mined naturally from flouride deposits... yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.....

The problem is that there's really no funding for "independent" studies. Someone has to have a vested interest in the study in order to pay for it. And we as a country don't want to pay for it out of our pockets (i.e., via increased taxes), so where is the funding supposed to come from? Charity and philanthropists? It's a real problem, especially with rare diseases that aren't wide spread; there's no money in it, so no one will pay the (rightfully) extremely high costs to develop treatments. The key issue is that there's no real motivation to fix or cure alot of conditions.

Connections. College bought me a network of resources which I use to run my company and have been able to rely on to spin off several other ideas. I work with a lot of 1%ers and never would have had that w/o college connections. I may not be set for life, the tuition is still a debt to me, but Im a hell of a lot more resilient due to the network of people and the amount of resources I can tap into with a simple phone call.

Agreed. Don't let the yogis on reddit upset you with their educational stockholm syndrome. In their hearts they are angry that they not only went for the okeydoke, but that they are most likely still paying for it, and will be for the next 25 years!

You will learn way more running your own business than getting a business degree.

This is the crux of it for me. Of course you'll learn more starting a business than getting a business degree, but guess what, multinational firms have eaten up marketshare in nearly every industry. Sure some kids will make a cool app or develop a successful website, but for each success there are tons of failures that no one hears about.

Those who fail at the entrepreneurial game are then forced to knock on the doors of big business for a career. Big business is run by those who went to college back when BA's weren't a bubble (meaning the cost more closely reflected the value). They see college degrees as mandatory because in their eyes, they want to hire someone that's exactly like themselves. BA's have now become invitations to the party, however, merely receiving an invite doesn't guarantee you anything, as you've still got to win over the hosts.

It's all a game designed by elite financial/industrial class in order to create a controlled society where existing power structures are rarely challenged/toppled.

What kills me is this sense of being a subject-matter expert that some kids get for majoring in a certain field. I have a Masters in business, and sometimes when I go into philosophy discussions people try to act like I'm not qualified. Sorry I haven't read a textbook, stared at powerpoint slides, and regurgitated vocabulary terms on multiple choice tests; I've instead 'only' read the actual source material written by the major thinkers in history themselves.

I attended a top tier tech school. I did not finish. The things I found out after I started attending were mind blowing to the facade they told me during open house and pre enrollment communication.

Just one example would be the turnover rate, can't think of the exact word right now. But only 60% of all students enrolled end up finishing their programs and receive a degree.

Another would be the way they select their professors. Idk about other colleges, but at mine they didn't select "professionals or teachers" so to speak, to teach courses. As being a highly advanced school (hundreds of businesses research, secret government research and the like are conducted there), a requirement for individuals to do research at the school was that they need to teach 2 courses a semester.

How does that seem bad, you might say. Well in the 2 years I was there, I had 3 first semester teachers who were released after their first semester because of their performance and the student reviews. In addition to that, I had to repeat a course, and got stuck with 2 different teachers, who taught similar curriculums but varied in many ways which was just confusing after learning it a different way before. Wait, it gets better. I had 2 teachers straight out of their phd programs who could barely speak English. Me and my classmates had to meet up after class to just share what we got for notes so we could understand the lecture.

Furthermore, lectures of 150 people are ridiculous. There is so many kids, and 3/4 of them are fucking off, talking, and just overall detracting from the possibility of an attention span to listen to some guy ramble in for 3 hours at time with a 5 minute break. They also can't meet and relate with their students that way, which in my opinion takes away from the learning even more.

The list could go on. But I got out when I woke up to the scam that it is. I go back every now and then to visit my fraternity, and all of my brothers are kicking themselves in the ass.

Padding and filler. General requirements, you're paying tens of >>thousands for college that you'll take years to pay off and they force >>you to take history 101? How is it their business that you have a 'well->>rounded' course load. College is the new High School apparently.

While some of this can be irrelevant, the strengths gained mentally from a true liberal arts curriculum is really bar none. Can this be applied to the cubicle paying jobs of today is where the challenge comes in.
I challenge everyone to pick up a book from the Western Canon and read it. Then read another, then another... Most of them are really quite quick, but ever so provoking.

Back to the point, if you want to learn a specific skill set, I do agree, programs should be streamlined as most people B.S. (whoa the similarity) their way through courses they are required to take anyway. But a college man or woman, historically, was always supposed to be a well rounded man or woman and I think that is where those traditions lay.

Has that core requirement evolved with inflation in the traditional university and has capitalism overran the university systems? Or has greed just always been there?

My father got his BS in child psychology, I could tell he enjoyed school but he always reminded me it is not a guarantee. His famous line "College is good, college is great, but remember there are a lot of PHDs driving taxi cabs." At the time I didn't really know exactly what he was getting at, now I know.

You could not shadow a nurse for 5 years and be an effective, competent healthcare provider. You would be a robot going through motions with out comprehending the science behind the treatments and medications. I basically live in a hospital, and without the education of anatomy, advanced pathophysiology, and pharmacology, I would be doing a disservice by not understanding to the highest level possible how to effectively recognize and treat problems. So while you feel memorizing and repeating facts is not true learning ( which I can agree with), you have to be able to memorize signs and symptoms, lab values, and drug actions/ common dosages to be an effective nurse.

I have a friend getting a masters in entrepreneurship, which I think is bull. I told him he he should just start a business rather than waste 50k for someone to tell him how to run it. But I feel healthcare is not quite the load of bs you have lumped in with the rest of college degrees.

I am a mechanical engineering major, and I do not attend class. I teach myself all of the material or I use online resources like MIT open courseware. I only show up for tests and to turn in homework. Try and tell me one thing that you learn from college that you couldn't have learned from reading a book.

I agree with a lot of what you are saying. College is way too expensive, and definitely not for everybody. There are a lot of bullshit majors, and a large number of students are wasting their time and money. I do think that there are a lot of people who would be better off, had they not paid for a college education. But those are individuals who made poor choices. Picking a bullshit major, drinking your way through college, and not having a clear plan and reason for being there is a person's own fault. I also take issue with a few other points you raised:

Your suggestion that there is no predicability in which careers will be valuable is ridiculous; I don't think you'd try to argue that potentially someday a creative writing degree will be more lucrative than an engineering degree. Virtually everything you're surrounded by was designed by engineers, and even if they invent robots to do it for them, it will take engineers to make them too. Picking a major based on what you think will be lucrative isn't the point, you should pick something you are good at and have a natural ability for, and not doing so is setting yourself up for failure. Successful people succeed doing things they are good at, not doing things they think will make them successful.

Repeatedly stating that college is just "memorizing facts," is plain wrong, and indicates that you don't know what you are talking about. Its about learning ideas, concepts, theories, and the foundations for the things you may someday do in a job. Its about having dedicated instructors to help you and answer your questions; people whose primary objective is to educate you. You won't learn these things on the job, and in most cases, you won't even reach a basic level of competence in a given field for several years. Its about having access to a wealth of knowledge, equipment, and facilities that are necessary to practice your skill. I am a huge proponent of self-education but most people don't have an engineering shop or a microbiology lab in their garage. I don't know what kind of business you own, but I'm sure if you need any kind of skilled labor, you'd prefer if they learned the skills before they were on the job.

It sounds to me like you took the first year of school, where most of the classes are bs general education requirements, which are largely exercises in memorization, then quit before you were deep into an education in a specific field. I took those classes too, and they were awful, and a waste of my time, but that is not what college was about. It seems like you have a very narrow view of what college consists of, and also a very narrow view of the skills necessary to even set foot onto many jobs. It is terrific that things have worked out for you after dropping out, but that doesn't make this good advice to give to other people. Just like college doesn't pan out for some people, skipping it and starting your own business doesn't for many others.

I think that like the housing bubble, the college bubble will pop. But much like people still live in houses in this post-pop world, people will still be going to college, because in many cases it is necessary.

Sure, some people have a chip on their shoulder about their degrees. And oddly enough their degrees aren't fully appreciated and thus their resentment at it. As far as how wrong you might be..........it is hard to know where to begin. I think you will find out for yourself later and be a better man for it. I don't resent PHD's but tell me about how you finally got your macbook set up properly. It can't be that hard to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fDlRySwqaY
Underemployment. Imo, colleges should only allow enough students to register for a major based on the expected job market growth of that field (this information is currently published on a yearly basis and is very accurate).